ms nbc takes you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons to a world of chaos and danger. now the scenes you've never 16 seen. "lock up raw". >> you're in jail. there is no greater punishment in the world. >> here with crack fine feifs, murderists. >> lock up spends time in three of the busiest jails, miami county, miami-dade, new york's

reichers island. we represent a real cross section across the country. each one has etc. unique set of challenges. >> lock down, lock down, lock down! >> you got to be on point you don't let your guards down for nobody. >> this is not a place to be. >> this is as close to living hell as i think i ever want to come. >> step back behind the red line. >> i am not in hell. i want to kill her. i can't take this. >> for the uninitiated or in this case the unincarcerated, there is sometimes confusion between prison and jail. police isn't only for convicted felon, james also house convicts. but only those awaiting transfer to prison or serving short-term

sentences, usually less than a year. >> listen up for your name. >> but most jail dpe tainees with pevending court cases have been denied or are unable to make bail. >> put your stomach on the wall, stomach only the wall, hands behind your back. >> there is another type of jail detakenee as well. they're often the post-dangerous. those who have just been arrested, sometimes still drunk, high on trucks or fresh from committing a crime. >> my base challenge here is dealing with all the varieties of people that come in from the streets. we have a lot of mental patients. a lot of the people arrested have psychological problems and haven't taken their medication for a long time. >> are there voices talking to you? >> yes, ma'am. >> you do hear them? okay. how long have some voice been talking to you? >> for a while. >> for a while. >> sometimes they're unavoidable. you foe the people that come in

here, they have nothing to lose, they're coming in here on their third strike. they're angry on the officers that arrested them. sometimes they take that aggression out on us. >> during three of the nation's largest jail systems, our crews have always come to expect the unexpected. >> this is how we wash our clothes, in the sink. >> at the miami-dade county jail, we ran into a young inmate wolves washing his clothes in the sink in his cell. he was an interesting looking kid so we asked for an interview. >> this is for the birds, pan, this is for the birds being locked up. it's for the bleeping birds. >> the interview was not for a lot of interviews we conduct with jail inmates. it had a lot of la czar ro complaining about conditions. >> man, they giving out perm fant homes across that courthous courthouse. >> and the next thing we know, officers were running in,

telling us with a had to grab our gear and go. there was some kind of disturbance going on and they were locking down the floor. >> that was a back-up call you just heard. officers are responding to the 5th emergencies. >> 10th floor, qru. put everybody on their bunks. >> fortunately, it turned out it wasn't a riot and we were able to keep shooting. that's one of the things that makes james really interesting. there really is a strong sense that anything can happen at any time. >> and nowhere is that more true than behind the walls of the sprawling jail complex that serves america's largest city. >> while new york city is the safest largest city if america and crime has been going down, one of the reasons the crime is going down is because the police

do make a lot of arrests and everybody who gets arrested and who doesn't get bailed out comes to us. >> get arrested in the big apple. you are almost assured of a trip to reichers island, a 400ing aer personal col fion the river wage under the path to the airport. checked by a two-lane bridge the island is home to an average of 14,000 inmates in ten different facilities. >> we patrol the neatest precincts in america. when our officers go into every day, they know everyone they run into is going to be a criminal. every criminalle who has committed the worst act is coming through here from new york city. >> they come off the streets. they're tired. they're dirty, they're hungry and you saw everything there, whether it was somebody who was from wall street who was charged with fraud or whether it was the lowest of the low of the drug

dealers. >> we get between 80 to 90 mission also day. around the clock twurs day seven days a week 1365 days a year. >> what size you wear? >> 8.5 guess what, 10 is going to be your lucky number. air giulianis. my brother. >> the city never sleeps. >> all right. we're going to tackle your mask. don your mask. >> while some inspections are routine if all the jails or profiled, fairp they were conducted with a military-like show of force at reichers. first the emergency response team marches if full riot gear armed with high voltage stun

shields they secure the area and provide an intimidating presence for any inmates who might be tempted to resist. then a team of correction am officers moves into the cells to begin their inspections. >> get out your i.d. cards. >> the last time they came in here went through everybody's cell and took everything out the cell and threw it on the tier. after they was done, there was 48 people's property mixed up in the middle of the floor, personal clothes, legal work. this is hoy we ddis you. >> while the inspections angry many inmates, they're for safety t. primary goal is to uncover weapons, they're ultimately successful. >> a metal under the bed, man. >> hey, what is it going to be? >> 955. >> during our stay on reichers

island one item found was involving two inmates. >> at approximately 11:40 hours, we had a stabbing. >> inmate bae ez, a self admitted latin king, we believe he was associated himself with the bloods, had his back sitting at another table, inmate baez removed the shank from his pocket, turned around and stabbed inmat brad is waith in the back. >> did you ro every the weapon? >> yes, frfs the workable. it went in three-quarters of an inch. at which time he removed the weapon from his bag and stabbed inmate baez. >> so he received functionals? >> yes, sir. >> to combat, is up jamie house attacks. they prosecute the offenders.

>> baez, carlos, we are placing you under arrest for assault. place your hands behind your back. >> when he was put in the holding cell, we were absolutely amazed he confessed to us. >> i stabbed one of the bloods in the back. >> we were shocked that he would admit to us on camera that he actually stabbed another prisoner. >> and when they pulled it out. he attacked me and stabbed me in the lower part of my abdomen. >> rodney brawaithe is other incident, he denies being a gang member to our producer. >> i just want to know why, what he stabbed me for, for what? i don't even know. >> le knows why. >> running with who? >> running with them guys. they were frying to set me up to hurt me. that's why i. >> i never even spoke to the guy. >> do you know the fame of the guy you stabbed? >> for the.

>> you just know who was e he was a part of the gang? >> he just stabs somebody. >> they will both be charged with 12005 they could receive three-and-a-half to seven in addition to what they're incarcerated with already. >> coming up, a lock-up brawl. corrections officials combat inmate uprisings and gang violence inside america's toughest jails. >> these kids don't know how to act like proper gangsters anymore. i'm l-i-s-a and i have copd, . reichers reichers islanmarlinss.

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. >> lock down, lock down, lock down! >> 14064, lock down, lock down, lock down. >> if the nation's largest jail facility is caught unprepared, the result can be slight chaos. you. >> 40 seconds. >> so when we visited the los

angeles county jail, it was no surprise that our cameras captured one of the many drills to test the readiness of those charged with pain taining older. >> okay. good job, guys. excellent. you hit a lock down if about a minute 30 seconds. that's a record. >> the state of readiness when they were doing that trip was pretty intense. >> there was definitely tension in the air. because a couple weeks prior there was a significant riot that lasted 45 minutes. no one was killed, but someone was put in a coma from a pretty bad beating. jail is completely different tan what it was 30 years ago. for one thing, we have much more violence-prone inmates in our system. in the past, that was never a problem. we did not have major riots and disturbances. we did not have the races fighting against one another in the jail system. >> l.a. county jail officials told us most of that violence

stems from one source. >> it's tripping out these mother bleeping -- without my wishes. >> almost half of our jail population is street gang members and they are probably responsible for 70 to 80% of the crime that occurs in our jail and nearly all of our murders have been gang-related in one way or another. >> and the gang bangers get younger every year. yeah. >> where are you from? >> south gate ig juan for thes. >> i'm from the root boys. >> he told us he joined a street gang when he was 14. >> do you have a job? >> no. >> are you going to get ojob? >> i don't think so, but you never know. >> how are you going to survive? >> there's ways to survive out there. self-employed. >> i continue to question him. i started pressing and started finding out trying to find answers to things, what really

poet rate motivates him for the that. it shifts from crossing the line with your questioning to you are a goof bomm. >> what keevend of things happen if your daily job? >> i have for the comment on that one. >> sure, i mean, you probably have an every day thing, you get org nietzed? >> just kick it and get drunk and party. >> make sure nobody ain't tripping around you. >> he stared me down, kind of gave me that junk yard dog look like i think we're done here. >> these kids don't know how to act like proper gangsters anymore. >> when we met this guy the 44-year-old inmate had spent almost 25 years in either jail or prison. back in l.a. county on an attempted murder charge, he told us he doesn't care much for the new generation of gang bangers. >> when i was out there, i would steal cars, joyride, whatever you want to call it. but look at the new generation, carjacking. these kids will go out, stick a

gun in someone's face to go joyride income a car and turn a misdemeanor crime into are a death penalty case. there's seven out of ten times they carjacked they kill the person they steal the car from. they don't get time around guys like me anymore to tell them, hey, sturngsd you don't want to sit on death row for a crime you could have spent 24 hours behind jail on. >> there is a code of ethics among killers and felons. he felt like the new generation was not abiding by that. >> when my dad was a small time mafiosa back east. he said there are thugs and gangsters, thugs come and golf gangsters are about making money and respect. if you are going to be a gangster in this life. there are two things you got to foe. you don't kill cops and you don't kill innocent women and children. if you live that way, most cops will let you make a dime.

12k3w4r we've had some issues with the gangs here in miami-dade, not to the extent of other larger jurisdictions. >> but the people dade county jail faces a problem of its own, the area's booming far cottics trade. >> the crimes vary, but most of them are ens centered around the use of trucks. >> we den foe if they're high on drugs and kung fu and fight a bunch of people. >> we had superman come if dressed if superman suit. he was visibly upset because they had taken his cape. >> we had just gotten done interviewing to miami's drug problems and how they contribute outside. when we stepped outside and saw an officer bringing in a young man to be booked. >> retail theft. >> it turns out he was also a prime exam of someone whose drug

abuse was not only leading to other crimes but stealing his life from him. >> do you want to give up the trucks? >> yes. i try. i don't do trucks every day. i don't smoke crack every day, but when i do, i go on a binge. >> are you presently taking any medication? >> crack cocaine, prozac, that's for depression. >> alphonso's drug abuse had landed him in jail so many times that it really just felt completely routine and he seemed to know the rest of the booking procedure well enough that he could just walk himself through it. >> my niece processes fingerprint. >> after we get through this, that's what you do next, fingerprinting. >> i have been here about 20 times. >> alphonso even knew the best time of day to get arrested. >> at night it get so crowded, so you got to use the bathroom in front of people. god knows if you got to take a dump. by me coming here early in the morning, i think i got a big

break. >> the sad thing ability alphonso, he not obviously had an addiction that kept getting him thrown in jail. he couldn't be honest about it to his own family. his one phone call was to his mother and he was heart breaking. >> i'm over here, over town. i was with a friend. i'm spending the fight with a friend. it's a female, though. i'm so sick of lying to my mom. i feel so bad. what can se do? she ain't going to bail me out f. i call her and say, pom, i'm if jail, again? see i told you to stay home. i didn't want to hear all that right now t. damage has been done. >> after being processed, alphonso was finally assigned to his cell. >> then i'll be here until cour court. coming up, the lock-up raw. >> it's all misdemeanors.

>> the one with coke. >> she's telling you all she need help. >> raise their babies. inside america's toughest jails. when he agreed to cosign for his daughter's credit card... he thought it was the end of the conversation. . and take a break of his own. experian. live credit confident. from coffee to snacks and drinks. everything... mom! except permission to use the garage. thousands of products added every day to staples.com. even safety cones. staples. make more happen. mayo? corn dogs?

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>> i haven't here. >> what are you in for? >> trespass. >> we met mildred rodriguez at new york's rikers island jail. she represents a rising tide of women that find themselves on the wrong side of jailhouse bars. >> listen, i'm 32, i don't see my life right now, i'm using drugs, i used crack, i'm not going to lie. this is what brings you back here. >> so let me ask you, what do you expect the city to do? >> to stop re-arresting me. >> the women are more emotional than men. a lot of them might be going through some seek logical trauma. they're separated from their families, their children.

>> listen, every week i'm here. it's not that i come to rikers island every week. it's bad, it's terrible. py record is about this thick. it's all with misdemeanors. i have over 35 misdemeanors just so i want them to help me, boom! we're going to give you a year's program. that's it. but don't keep giving me those 30 days or these ten days, that's not helping me. >> this young lady back here is telling you all she need help. throwing her in and out of here, it's not going to help her. >> they have money for inmates every day, where is it? >> they're already down, that's how i feel. i'm being honest. they got murders out there the drug dealers. they'll pick up the truck addicts instead of the person giving it to them. i think it's unfair. >> drug-related arrests and anger at the system were common themes among most of the women we met in jail. >> we are threatened for etching, everything to sit for count. we are threatened to get on our

bumpgs, threatenned to get things out of our hair that just make us feel a little more feminine. >> repeat offender kimberly joan was sentenced for four years for sales of a controlled substance. she let loose on the staff at the end. >> i feel like the sheriffs department is organized crime themselves, anyway. they organize a way to disenfranchise every step. we stick towing, they break our pods up. i was in a whole another pod. all of a sudden i'm in this pod over here. why? because we all got along. >> hi, ladies. >> there are womener who e here who are actually incident. we are all proven guilty until otherwise. >> how to him you are all in there. are you having a party in there? huh? >> but l.a.'s women's facility wasn't all that. this group found a creative way to play volleyball with a toild

paper net held up by sanitary pads. >> every five second the net would fall down. they would have three or four san tore nap kins to keep it up. it goes to show you when you are inside, you need to distract yourself from the day-to-day craziness of being locked up, you will do just about anything to entertain yourself. >> a surprising thing as this jail was, our crew found another unexpected sight back at iraqers island. incarcerated mothers raising their babies. >> she lucky to be alive. she's a good baby. she's sleep real good. >> grgina and her baby vanessa were held for a place where inmates have babies in jail. >> under new york state law, a woman who gives birth while in custody has a legal right to keep the baby with her for up to

a year as long as they are not nextful or abusive with the child. >> being in that nursery was probably one of the saddest places i can remember on rikers island. it was a real slice of reality and i remember the crew and i talking about how sad we felt for these children. >> at this age, they don't foe where they rchl alls they know is they're with their pots. that's it. they do not know where they are. except that mommy's there. >> there young mother who asked we not reveal her name was with her infant daughter. >> it's nice. it's nice to be able to take care of her. the disadvantages is she doesn't see the outside, hear the dogs barking, the cars going by. >> what's your greatest fear here? >> losing my child. that's the only thing. that's my greatest fear. >> coming up on lock up raw.

>> i call it the drama floor. >> gender bending inmates. >> the sheet, the towels, stuff like that we make dresses. >> and jailing for the mentally disturbed. >> he was violent, he was definitely someone you would not want to be left in a room alone with. nd are a master of diversification. who would have thought three cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets. it's a masterpiece. thanks. clearly you are type e. you made it phil. welcome home. now what's our strategy with the fondue? diversifying your portfolio? e*trade gives you the tools and resources to get it right. are you type e*?

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seven people are dead including a gunman who when itself on a rampage in santa barbara, california saturday night. police say elliot roger stabbed three men to death in his apartment, shot two women outside a sorority house and sought another man inside a deli. the heads of the veterans affairs department says more vets are getting more health care at private health care and clinicles. erin shinseki's comments follow allegations of falsified records and delays in treatment. now back to lock up raw. >> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised.

>> when i'm not doing something, somebody will find something for me to do him most of the time it's stupid stuff. so it's better just to find something to do yourself. >> when we met joseph reagan in one of the massive kitchens in new york city's rikers island jail, he was serving 90 days for criminal asaushlths petty larceny. >> they aren't always as clean as they should be. you got cockroachs in here and stuff leak that. but, you know, i haven't seen anybody die lately. so i guess they get away with it. >> while reagan may never get a job as a rikers island spokesman, he offered a plug for light year. >> if you like being told what to do, eat, sleep, go to the

bathroom, scratch your behind, you like the chance of getting your behind kicked or killed by inmate itself, if you like the type of thing, then this is the place for you. >> like many other inmates here, reagan has had multiple arrests. >> most people come to jail, they stay in, they come back, they come back. you end up spending the rest of your life in jail. >> while inmates can sometimes be if denial about the circumstances that brought them to jail, reagan was crystal clear. >> me, like a lot of people, it's not that we don't have the knowledge to do good things. i know carpentry, masonry. i have the ability or skills. it all comes down to skills. i shoot hostile for varies reasons, lack of discipline, self-confidence, or self-destructive nature. not they can't do it. it's just that i don't. >>. >> but not everyone believes jail is a choice. some feel they have victims to a

probation system that's all too easy to violate and keeps sending them back. >> i was told by my first probation officer after reading the conditions of my probation, if you can do this without me violating you, you will be lucky. this was the first time i met this man the first time i had been on probation. he was very right. >> eric johns original charge was for sexual battery. after serving four years in prison, he was released on probation. but when a urine test proved positive for marijuana, he was back in the miami-dade county jail. >> i am a three-time loser. this makes my third time. once you're in the system, you will be back. >> eric johns was definitely a loner in the jail system, but he developed his own method of survival. in fact, he told us during his first day in jamie, he sent a message to ward off any predatory inmates. >> the first time i came in i looked for the biggest guy in the unit.

i decked him. that's how i lost my front teeth. i got my teeth knocked out. but they said at that point either that guy is crazy or hess bad. but we're holgy blown fiain't worth it. i'm a educated male i'm the oddball. i realize that. actually, this looks like one of the better male meals. you should be here on pigeon night. i think they calm it chicken everywhere else. >> there is nothing else that makes me happy. this is as close to a living hell as i think i ever want to com come. >> seeing many of the inmates cycle in and out of the facility, is not uncommon for jamie officials nor is it unusual for certain inmates to be housed toke. we discovered on the fifth floor of the los angeles county jail. >> i call it the drama floor.

you get a mix of everything, gender population petty theft to burglary the homosexual inmates. normally, they're separated from everyone else simply because a lot of times they will be abused. there is a lot of homosexual inmates that can fool you, the gender bending. it's hard to tell. >> my name is tasha my last name is swain. >> 37-year-old bernard tasha swain was serving a fin month sentence for a pa role violation. >> so how were you making money in the streets? >> prostitution and selling trucks. >> one of the other things that bernard did on occasion inside l.a. county jail was put on beauty pageants. he was like a peadock. so he wanted to show off his feathers. >> like a miss america pageant. we do them in here the first runner up for the boy the school boys, the vogue, all that kind of stuff. it's a variety of things you are going up for. it's not just you.

we cut up sheets, towel, make them look like dresses, you know. we destroy state property to make the outfit, in other words. >> do you make them? >> i do my thing. >> we explored another special housing unit at l.a. county as well. the meantal health ward, where we encountered one of the post-unforgettable scenes in lockup. >> there was one gentleman in particular i could barely see him because there was so much graffiti on his cell door and all over his walls, they lockled like hieroglyphics. a lot of the warrick on the door, his human fecies, he also has combined a little mustard on it for coloring. that's what he is writing with on the actual door. he has been here a long time. so he continually works on it. then i saw the inmate inside, he was completely naked except for

cellophane over his private parts. he wasn't pounding on the door, he was not hurting himself, he was definitely not someone you would want to be left alone in a room with. coming unlocate up raw. >> if flaen anyone has contraband, you will be arrested. >> visiting day inside america's toughest jails will you help us find a new house for you and your brother?

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jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. . when one is arrested and you go to jail, they could be there anywhere from a few hours to over a year. in the jamies that we filmed in, the average time was about six weeks. so the only bright spot for these inmates is a visit from a family member or a friend. >> visitation is an important right for inmates. but it also poses a security

risk. it's one of the cheap ways drugs and other contraband can be smuggled into the jail. at new york city's rikers island, we found the correction am staff wasn't about to let that happen. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to fork city department of corrections. my name is officer p. hunt 9865. i'm a member of the k-9 unit. today we will do a narcotics search. this is where we load the bus and do illegal substance. meaning crack, cocaine, marijuana, heroin. if you have the people, now is the time to either put on the floor or put it in the amnesty box over there, deposit it in that box over there. >> when leaving the jail facility, visitors are not only given a blunt warning of contraband, they are handed a number to correspond with their seat. then a drug sniffing dog boards the bus. >> so my dog starts scratching seat football three, i'm going to look over and say that's who we must search. >> drugs. >> right here, we found two

empty balloons. now, a lot of people what they like to, do they like to stuff either the marijuana or crack cocaine inside these balloons him right here, have you seat number ten and football 11. so as of right now, i'm going to request the visiting officer to search whoever was sitting at ten and 11. they may still have something on them. >> an off camera search of the visitors in seats ten an 11 revietnam for the contra banned. and they denied only in of the balloons, but inside the reception area, all the visitors were given yet another warning. >> okay. listen umm. if you have a 525, a d felony, anyone with contraband will be arrested. look down into your pock, into your wallet. i'm not saying you have anything. if you happen to find something by chance, you can put it in this amnesty box right here. >> we want to make it clear, this is your last cans, drop it on the floor, in the box, go visit your people. but we still have some people that want to try to sneak the

truck noose the jails. >> security measures are equally tight at the los angeles county jail. once inside, visitors and inmates are separated by glass partitions and are strictly monitored. >> the general population, you have 15 minutes, four days a week. that's it. you are on timers. you 'ush the button, you start it up. the place is locked. >> you got share that space with all throws other inmates. they have 15 minutes. all of a sudden as soon as that timer clicks off there is no warning. it will go off. they'll be sitting in the middle of the conversation saying "i love you" to someone and boom there is like for the sound. >> that sound you just heard clicking is one of the rows shutting off. so that means we got some inmates that are ready to return to their housing location. >> a black man, check out the stares, we don't foe how to act, man. >> when we met bernard jones at

the people dade county jail, the aspireing rapper was anticipating a vis it from his girlfriend. he had been incars rayed nearly four years while ray peeling a life sentence for armed robbery. >> what is your best moment when you leave here? >> it's hard for me to say that. i got a problem with keeping my hand off my area. that's the best moment of the week is within i can get me a visit. it's hard in here. i get tired of seeing men every day. so you foe when i get a cans to see a beautiful woman, i can't look at them too much. that's against the rules. if she is beautiful, i don't even got the right to tell her, are you beautiful, how are you doing'd? so i got to wait until i can see something of my own and tell her, you're beautiful. that's when i get my moment on thursdays and saturdays. thursdays and saturdays. >> well, i think the visit mean

a lot for him because if i don't come or for the one den come, he's going to be mad. >> bernard's girlfriend angela has only known him behind bars. it turns out they had met four months earlier on a blind date of sorts. >> my brother is locked up here, too. he put him on the phone one day thinking we wasn't going to click, but we did. >> what does he say to you when you come in? does he say thank god? thank you so much? >> he love me, i'm so beautiful. thank you for coming. thank you for being by my side. that type of stuff. >> you got to go back. >> you want me to go back? >> angela was so nervous and then our microphones set off the alarm system. >> next. >> she had good reason to be excited.

at miami-dade inmates without disciplinary problems are allowed one contact vis eight month. >> are you excited? >> what? >> are you excited about seeing him? >> it's my first time being able to touch him. yeah. >> angela was literally hyphen vent lateing. she was overwhelmed with emotion. after four months, they would finally get a chance to touch each other. i love him. >> we didn't really know what to expect from the visit. but they had both obviously been anticipating this meeting and the intensity of that moment was very powerful. >> you look pretty. all that tore me?

>> baby, i love you. i do. >> today is the first time that we have to touch each other. i just want you to foe that this day will never be forgotten. i love you, baby, and always will. >> come closer, please. >> but there's a catch to the contact visits at the people dade county jail. >> come closer to me. >> no. >> why? everybody knows it's close. >> when there is a contact visit, the couple can only have contact at the beginning and the end of their time together. just a quick hug, that's it. bernard was very aware of this. i don't think angela was. >> why you can't sit closer to me? >> you all can not sit like that. you all know you cannot sit like this. >> jail officers are strict because of a history of past infractions. >> don't do. surprise inspections like this one by miami's k-9 team often

uncover contraband on visitors. >> i find marijuana and cocaine all the time a. visitor came to the jail last 84. a female. she came to see her boyfriend. i found 12 balls wrapped in plastic and she had it in her body carveties, the alert was given in that area and you foe we're in the allowed to strip them but we pat them down and we found one little ball if her bra some that gave us probable cause for arrest. >> for bernard and angela, the tight constraints make their first contact visit bitter sweet. >> i need you to know that. sometimes it ain't nothing we have control of. all right? we got to comply with the rules. understand? >> we will make it work. we will. because it's not easy being with someone if jail. it's really not. no, i'm happy being with him,

but it's not easy. it's really not. >> coming up on lock up raw. >> i was in the street hustling. i never had a regular job in my life. that's what i'm trying to say. i never had a regular job. >> one woman finds hope in a jamie house bakery. everything... mom! except permission to use the garage. . roducts added every day to staples.com. even safety cones. staples. make more happen. even safety cones. hey, i heard you guys can help me with frog protection? yeah, we help with fraud protection. we monitor every purchase every day and alert you if anything looks unusual. wow! you're really looking out for us. we are. and if there are unauthorized purchases on your discover card, you're never held responsible. just to be clear, you are saying "frog protection" right? yeah, fraud protection. frog protection. fraud protection. frog. fraud. fro-g. frau-d. i think we're on the same page. we're totally on the same page.

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one of the most unlikely sights we found on fork's rikers island was the jail's huge bakery here, inmates work along side civilian bakers to help feed the jail's 14,000 residents. >> we make 88,000 loafs a week. we make bread to feed the employees. so we make a lot of bread here.

>> they gave us a couple of loeves in this huge crock of butter. we slathered this butter on loeves of the bread. it rivalled any bakery in new york. >> inmate rhonda narducci was hoping the bakery would turn her life around. >> when i came here, i was depressed, i said my first felony, i said, oh my god, my records are messed up now. i don't know what to do. so i got myself into the bakery to keep myself busy and i love the bakery. >> have you ever worked in the bakery before? >> i over in worked outside. i always been in the street hustling. i never had a regular job in my life. that's what i'm trying to dell you. i never had a regular job. >> she was serving eight months on a drug possession charge.

>> i was working in the street and down west farms and some guy approached me. i thought it was a date. because i work in the street. so he gives me the.. he asks me where i can get drugs. he gave me the money, i got the trucks for him. i gave him the stuff. crack. before you know it, they got me and him, my first felony. >> she told our producer she had worked as a prostitute for the past 14 years. >> i didn't like myself doing it. i wasn't too raep about it. but i had for the choice. i had no money. >> how many years did you do that? >> sense i was 21. >> she hopes the skills she has picked up in the bakery will give her a second chance as a mother. >> she's 14. she's with her father's mother in florida. >> what's her name? 12k34r rosanne. >> what does she write?

>> she's saying she-s me, she misses me. i feel like crying right now. >> it's okay. it's all right. are you all right in. >> yeah. >> it's okay. >> i miss my daughter. >> i foe you do. >> it's. >> it's right. it's all right. >>py heart went out to her because whenever prisoners begin to talk about their children, it is the one very sensitive spot if their lives and for the matter what they may have done to get them to a jail to prison, they still are very touched and love their children. . >> but the good thing that you got a lot out of being here, right if. >> yes. ever since i have been in here for several months, doing my eight months, i feel good now. i just thank god i'm in here. i'm glad because when i was in the street i started smoking

that stuff. it didn't help me. it got me into trouble. it got me in here. now i learned my lesson, i ain't touching it no more. i want my life back together. >> i felt i was going to commit crime until the day i died. i hated government, america, all the excuses you can think of until i started to just take accountability for my own actions and responsibility for what i had done to my life. >> scott randolph was another rikers inmate anticipating his release. when we met him, he was serving a year for petty larceny and violating parole. >> i just spiraled out of control as far as criminalality goes. so i have been back and forth a few times, mostly for drug activity, trying to make customers in the street. >> but randolph took advantage of the writing program and had hopes of becoming a journalist. >> we publish the rikers review.

it's created for inmates by inmate, it was extremely help. . it gave me a lot of computer skills and marketable skills. i am looking forward to using that when i get out. >> it has some of his poems. >> this one called hold this. hold this, grip these words as if your embrace alone will help me save my life so that i might live to give my tomorrows as payment for yesterday's debts. >> randolph says the poem is his vision for a new life. >> the future conceals hope and happiness i have yet to feel wind chill this, you present a fresh foundation on which to rebuild. the peace i seek is real. i rasche for your compassion, strong as steel. this is my truth that you feel. may you cherish my conscience, hold this.

msnbc takes you behind the walls of the most notorious prisons into a world of danger, now the scenes you have never seen. lock up raw. >> back in a minute in 1852, and home to california's death row, san quentin state prison was bursting at the seams due to overcrowding. when we shot our extended stay series there, san quentin had one program designed to discourage